Vegan Pesto

A little over 3 weeks ago I planted out my rooftop up-cycled pallet garden. I’ve been amazed to watch how quickly it has gone from a couple puny little transplants, some of which I didn’t have much hope for, to a thriving and impressive urban vegetable garden. The tomatoes and peppers have already set fruit, and the herbs are almost to the point of being out of control. Meaning that I need more basil recipes – and fast! The most obvious is pesto. Though most pesto recipes are not vegan, nor would I consider them vegetarian as parmesan cheese is made with animal rennet, it’s fairly easy to make a good vegetarian pesto by simply leaving the cheese out altogether or substituting it for another umamai ingredient such as nutritional yeast or miso paste. Some flexibility is also possible with pesto’s other simple ingredients. Pine nuts are uber-expensive, even here in Spain where pine nuts are produced and form an integral part of many traditional recipes. Therefore, walnuts can serve as an acceptable alternative, albeit lending a slightly different taste to the finished pesto. I also like to use a mix of herbs rather than straight basil, the addition of a bit of mint gives a pleasant, refreshing quality to my pesto.